


This Close to You

by st_aurafina



Series: Playing Hard to Get [2]
Category: Iron Man (2008), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Crossover, Gift Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-08-10
Updated: 2009-08-10
Packaged: 2017-10-04 05:42:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/st_aurafina/pseuds/st_aurafina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scott and Tony do some training.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Close to You

**Author's Note:**

> Written for likeadeuce's birthday.

The call came in while Tony was forty thousand feet over Alaska: rumour had it the Russians were testing the new Sukhoi prototype today. Once the voice recognition flashed up Scott Summers' face, he set a trace running.

"You said you could kick my ass if you were in the suit. Care to put your money where your mouth is?"

The call was coming in from a construction site. "I have a lot of money and a big mouth. Are you sure you're up to the challenge? I mean, I see you're working construction right now, and that's really very manly, but I don't want to hurt you. I'm being very responsible here. I am prioritising the safety of your ass."

"My ass is up for it." There was laughter in Scott's voice; Tony watched the harmonics spool out on the display. "I'm in Cincinnati; I know a place outside the city where we can do this. When do you want to meet up?"

One thing that Tony liked about the vigilante community was the way they assumed that travel over large distances was easy and available. No messing around with appointment calendars or flight schedules. His scope lit up: the Russian stealth bomber was cruising at thirty five thousand feet. He'd only have one chance to get these readings. "I have something to take care of right now, but I can be there in a couple of hours. I have a real job, you know."

***  
The co-ordinates led to an abandoned quarry – piles of shale and high cliffs created a private space for Tony to work in the suit. Judging from the rusted hulks of abandoned cars that circled the water, there was no need to worry about collateral damage. It was perfect. Scott waved a greeting from the ground, and Tony landed neatly on the gravelly surface beside him.

Scott walked a full circle around the suit curiously. "It's more solid than I expected. It looks smaller on TV."

"Really? That's reassuring. I've been told television adds five pounds." Tony turned to face him. "So how do we start this? Should I bow or something?"

"Hit me with those repulsors; I want to get a feel for that first." Scott clapped a hand against his right shoulder. "Here. I'll roll with it."

Tony frowned, and brought the setting down as low as it would go. The targeting software lit up Scott's frame with optimum strike points, but Tony hesitated. "Are you sure about this? I don't know how much damage it's going to do."

"Don't you think that's something you should know? Don't worry about hurting me; I've survived brawls with some powerful people who had far less concern for my well-being than you do." Scott took a step forward, shoulders hunched aggressively, and Tony's arm swung up automatically, gauntlet tracking his movement. He prayed Scott knew what he was doing, and squeezed off a short burst of repulsion force. It pushed hard against Scott's body – Tony heard a rush of air as Scott exhaled. He watched with relief as Scott let the impact flip him backwards, turning the momentum into a backwards somersault. He came up in a crouch next to a pile of scrap iron, and eased himself upright.

Scott rubbed at the impact point on the point of his shoulder. "Okay, that's going to bruise, but nothing's broken. Good to know." Without warning, he took a long step forward and tucked in a neat roll that brought him back to Tony's position. The targeting software suddenly flashed a warning, but before Tony could make sense of Scott's movements, Scott had wedged a sharp iron rod through the hinge-point of Tony's knee. Tony flinched instinctively, though the metal was inches away from his skin. Diagnostic data spilled down the display – Scott had broken two fluid lines in the left boot. Tony's left leg was frozen in position; he could move, but the light, easy movement afforded him by the hydraulic system were impossible.

"The suit is very fancy, but hydraulics are hydraulics." Scott circled behind Tony, moving into Tony's blind spot, the point beyond which Tony could not swivel, not with one foot immobilised. Tony could track him, and targeting from behind wasn't a problem but it was disorienting to have restricted movement, no matter how safe he was inside the suit. Short of shooting Scott, there was not much he could do from this angle. His lips were suddenly dry – he tweaked the environmental settings to nudge the humidity up a notch, then he reached down and pulled the metal rod out of his knee joint. The seals were still broken, his boot was still malfunctioning, but at least Scott wouldn't have a lever with which to do more damage.

"Can we maybe do this without damaging the tech? You just clocked up quite a bar tab."

Scott was still behind him, but the scope showed him standing casually, hands in his pockets. "You know you can't negotiate that with actual opponents, right? But okay. We'll use a tag system. I tag you, you go down."

"What if I tag you?" Tony bent the iron rod in half, and threw it aside.

"Well, we'll deal with that if it happens." Scott edged a little closer as he spoke.

"If? That doesn't sound very optimistic."Tony leaned and swivelled to track Scott as he moved, even though the sensors could do it perfectly well. Something about Scott's posture made Tony's shoulder blades itch. When Scott dropped a shoulder to make another roll, Tony was ready – he flung out an arm and hooked it around Scott's middle, hauling him in close.

Scott's hand was clenched as he held it close to Tony's visor. "This is a grenade."

Tony almost let him go in frustration."Oh, come on. As if I'd let someone that close to me with a grenade. There's ten different scan routines I could run to detect explosives."

"And you ran these scans, did you?"

"Well, there's no studies on the long-term effects, so forgive me if I was concerned for the health of your testicles." Tony did not like the expression on Scott's face. "What? What is that grin for?"

Scott flicked something small away; it clinked and rattled against the shale. By the time Tony recognised the grenade key, the visual ident software had given him make and model of the fragmentation device Scott held in a frighteningly relaxed grip.

The two of them stood face to face, Tony's arm still clasped around Scott's waist. After a moment, Tony spoke. "So, what's the point? I don't mean to disappoint, but a fragmentation device isn't going to do more than scratch the paintwork on the suit, even at close range."

"It's going to shred me to pieces, though." Scott's voice was surprisingly calm. "You're not always going to be up against fighter jets and tanks. It's pretty clear to me that if you're going to be a philanthropic super-hero you need to consider some strategies for harm-minimisation. You're so scared of doing harm to civilians, it makes you hesitate. It makes you _vulnerable_."

Tony thought of Gulmira, and how differently things could have gone down. Had he been shooting first, without asking questions? And more pertinently, if he didn't want to operate that way, how could he hope to save lives if he couldn't trust his own strength?

"We could stand here all night," said Scott. "But my hand's going to get tired eventually."

Tony was still calculating fuse time and trajectory. "That's not exactly what I want to hear when I've got you clasped in a tender embrace." The light of the arc reactor dimmed for a moment while Tony diverted energy into a magnetic pulse. The grenade flew out of Scott's grip and soared towards the greenish blue pool of water at the lowest point of the quarry. Two seconds later, the water exploded outwards, covering them both in a brackish spray.

"Very neat." Scott let go of Tony and stepped away, shaking his arms of excess water. "Your hostage is damp, but will live."

Tony tilted his head: he was getting some unexpected geological readings. "Oh, shit!" He looped his arm around Scott's waist again and hit the rockets, just as the wall of the quarry slid towards them with a rattling roar. Scott tensed in his arms, then quickly aligned himself along the length of Tony's body, finding an optimum angle that reduced drag as much as possible.

"You're a good passenger." Tony kept them at a low altitude while he circled the quarry, looking for a safe place to land. The high end of the quarry was covered with trees and thick grass, which meant that the ground was most likely solid. He confirmed it with a quick scan.

Scott twisted his head around – pressed against Tony's body, he couldn't see where they were going. "Can you land like this? With one leg disabled?"

"Look who's the back seat driver now." Tony wound the power back gently, and brought them down to earth with a soft hop. "I'm murder on the dance floor, baby." He released Scott, and leaned down to disengage the malfunctioning boot. "Now you can help me fix this."

With his knee joint locked and the visor up, Tony could comfortably stand on one leg for hours; he propped his left leg on the warped wood of a picnic table so he could work on it. Scott perched beside him and helped re-connect the hydraulics.

"I get the point," Tony made spot welds while Scott held the line in place, "It just worries me that I can't anticipate these things."

Scott reconnected the line – he did the fine work so that Tony didn't have to take off his gauntlets. "Collateral damage is part of the work. You have the instinct to protect life, you just need to learn to trust yourself. And you're already getting the hang of it. The most important thing is to be prepared; that's what practice is for. " He moved his hand out of the way so that Tony could seal the line.

"So, I'm thinking," Tony ran a pressure-check on the line then reactivated the joint, "We should get together like this more often. In secret, mind you. I have my reputation to think of."

Scott slid to the ground and propped Tony's boot on his thighs so he could bolt it closed. "If the boot fits..." He released Tony's foot, clearly pleased with the smooth operation of the repaired hydraulics. "Don't worry, Cinderella. I promise not to take advantage of you." He stepped up and away to give Tony a safe launch space.

Tony grinned and flipped the visor closed. "Don't make promises you know you can't keep." He activated the boot jets, and with a wave, launched himself into the sky.


End file.
